Not Another Vanity Fair Takedown of Sarah Palin

Vanity Fair posted its second Sarah Palin profile in
as many months today. As with last month's "It Came From Wasilla," the
portrait drawn by author Michael Joseph Gross is less than flattering. Are readers beginning to feel the first pangs of Palin fatigue?

Stale Story The Alaska Dispatch slams the
article's revelations as "small advances to the general story about
Palin's growing celebrity." The piece "repeats oft-heard claims that in
private [Palin's] personality is unstable" and is overly reliant on
"dubious claims made by sources who don't wish to be identified." The
result is a profile that will feel like "familiar ground" for
experienced Palin-watchers.

Skeptical Politico's Ben Smith is dubious of the piece,
especially the account of Palin offering to schedule her daughter's
wedding for maximum media exposure, an anecdote that appears in the
magazine "embellished almost beyond recognition." Rather than shedding
new light on the former Alaska governor, Smith believes the "takeaway
from the magazine piece is...that you can really write anything
about Palin."

Different Spin This is not your father's Sarah
Palin profile, observes The Atlantic's Chris Good. Gross's main focus is
"people of Wasilla and how they see Palin, mostly as a newfound outsider
of whom they live in perpetual fear, cautious to speak badly of her for
fear of reprisal." The hushed tones in which Alaskans discuss Palin
reminds Good of "the reported sentiments of Iraqis living in fear of
Saddam after his government was toppled and he hid from U.S. forces in
desert bunkers."

In a Vacuum Newsweek's Ravi Somaiya contends the unique circumstances of Palin's
celebrity leave her impervious to political blowback. "Palin is
insulated in ways that other public figures can only dream of," writes
Somaiya. It doesn't matter that the Gross's article boasts "the kind of
detail that sets the political press frothing." At the slightest hint of
controversy, Somaiya writes, Palin's allies in the blogosphere are
there to "defend her like so many lionesses surrounding a cub."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Ray Gustini is the author of Lucky Town, a forthcoming book about sports in Washington, D.C. He is a former staff writer for The Atlantic Wire.